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Laurie Halse Anderson's Paintings

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Painting is like keeping a diary on canvas. Art expresses ones feelings in ways words cannot. This is true for protagonist Melinda Sordino in the Laurie Halse Anderson novel about teenage rape, Speak. Anderson uses trees, mainly Melinda’s paintings and sculptures of trees, to chronicle Melinda’s growth in the novel. Instead of Melinda saying exactly how she felt all the time in the book, Anderson uses Melinda’s paintings to keep a diary of her emotions. With the trees, any reader can see Melinda transition from feeling lifeless with no hope and nothing keeping her going to accepting herself and having hope for the future. At the beginning of the novel, Melinda is painting trees that reflect exactly how she is feeling. In the chapter "Opposite …show more content…

She also struggles with the feeling of hopelessness. In the chapter "Coloring Outside the Lines," Melinda is working on her trees in art class and these feelings, along with others, are shown through her reactions to her work. She says, "I have already ruined six linoleum blocks I can see it in my head: strong old oak tree... But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree... I can 't bring it to life. I 'd love to give it up. Quit. But I can 't think of anything else to do, so I keep chipping away at it" (p. 78). This shows how she wants the tree to be a perfect "strong old oak tree" and if it is anything different, it seems dead to her. This quote could be used to infer that she is picturing a perfect version of herself and because of what happened to her, she will not be that perfect version of herself that she wishes she could be. This quote also shows that nothing is keeping her going but that fact that she has nothing else to do with her life at that moment in time. From the passage, the reader can also infer that Melinda wants to give it all up, not just her art, but the struggle of her freshman year and living with the internal aftermath of being raped. Anderson uses Melinda 's struggle with trees in her art class to show her internal struggle of dealing with the fact that she was

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Melinda is going through the same procedure as the tree. If Melinda put her past behind her and move on, it will give her a chance to grow. "Let me tell you about it." This quote made me happy because it was coming from a girl who stayed to herself, who wouldn't tell anybody anything, even though she had experienced something tragic. Deep down inside, her not to say nothing was hurting her even

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Having this tree helps Janie through many hard times, and gives her something to think about in her times of need. The pear tree serves as a means of characterizing Janie throughout the novel by symbolizing lessons for Janie, Janie’s life, and giving Janie a goal for life. In the story, the pear tree characterizes Janie by being a symbol for her. At the beginning of the story, Janie watches a bee gathering pollen from a blossom on the tree.

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At the end of the story she finally found her voice and was able to stand up for herself. In the beginning, Melinda didn't talk to anyone, barely even to her parents. She says, “I have tried so hard to forget every second of that stupid party and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can't tell them what really happened” (Anderson, 28).

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She is an iconic character for overcoming The Beast. There are many other examples, of her fear and especially overcoming it everywhere in many stories. For example, a song titled “I Walk To My Own Song” By Stratovarius, in a stanza it says, “High I fly, I touch the sky, Far above the frozen minds, You can't kill my dreams, You can't kill my spirit, I was born to be free.” Melinda was very much pinned down after being raped, but she then rises above Evans and screams no. She shows that she cannot be touched, she flew high, and she showed Evans then in the closet that she is better than him, that Evans cannot kill her dreams or spirit.

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Despite the fact that the tree was ten feet tall and she and Neeley were so small and frail she still had hope and believed that they had a chance at catching it without falling down once it was chucked at them. Having hope makes Francie more confident in herself and allows her to maintain a positive attitude which motivates her. It distracts her from the unhappiness around her and hope combined with faith and thankfulness allows her to find happiness within small things which come her way in her poverty-stricken life. Moreover, Francie demonstrates the virtue of love on various occasions through out the book. This is evident when Francie notices the favouritism Katie has towards Neeley.

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Additionally, Melinda uses negative ways to cope by doing self-harm and isolating herself. Melinda also uses positive mechanisms to cope with her trauma by expressing herself through art and standing up for herself. Melinda states, "For a solid week, ever since the pep rally, I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning” (Anderson 30). This demonstrates how Melinda uses the arts to creatively express her emotions. She is also showing Mr. Freeman how she feels, which is a positive gesture.

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This emphasises the enormity of the task Ofelia is about to embark upon and also her vulnerability as the tree’s dominating presence fills the frame. The fig tree itself is symbolic in its representation. Firstly, the entrance of the tree resembles that of a female’s ovaries, with its curved branches replicating the fallopian tubes. Moreover, the tree’s sickened state mirrors Ofelia’s pregnant mother’s own fragile condition.

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She at first thinks the task of drawing a tree is easy, but she soon realizes it is harder than it seems. Melinda can easily picture a tree in her mind, but she can not draw it. This relates to Melinda before and after she was raped by Andy Evans. Before the rape, Melinda is represented by the tree when she says, “I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun”(78). Melinda was completely fine before the rape occurred, and she was happy with herself and her surroundings.

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She feels ashamed and blames herself for not being a good enough wife for Tom, just as Melinda feels guilty as though the rape was her fault, even if it really wasn’t. It is later revealed that in reality, it was actually Tom who had done all those atrocious things. He would lie to Rachel, blaming her for all the things he had done, just to make her feel guilty, weak, and worthless. Just how Andy had made Melinda feel after he raped her. With this connection, I can better understand Melinda’s character through Rachel’s in The Girl on the Train, which I read and enjoyed before I read

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The end of the poem you see her in a casket with a new nose and makeup and essentially she looks like a doll. Everyone who is there to see her comments on how pretty she. She is said to now have a happy ending. This poem talks about how this girl was just an innocent girl who didn't have any issues with herself till she reached a certain age.

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Some quiet Melindagirl I haven 't seen in months. That is the seed I will care for” (188-189). This is the positive momentum with which she propels herself into her recovery as a strong young woman. The tone here changes and has a much more hopeful feeling. With Anderson’s unique style of writing she so artistically develops her theme that even

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By focusing on objects that pertain to its proximity in relation to the tree, it demonstrates that the Oak tree is most concerned with objects that are capable of affecting their life. The Oak tree provokes its readers to have empathy towards itself by anthropomorphizing itself in a variety of ways. The Oak tree states “I had learned the basic trick of going two directions at once” (LeGuin 270) which demonstrates that they have the ability to learn, an attribute many people only give to humans or animals. In addition to this, the protagonist relates itself to “a family of rigid principle and considerable self-respect” (LeGuin 268).

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A loss of physical innocence is shown here, "I can 't see my own arms and legs or know if this is a trap or blessing" She is telling us that she has become physically detached from her body and she is confused as she doesn 't understand if this moment is a "trap of a blessing. " The loss of innocence clearly links up with post-apocalyptic times in The Road to Winter where Finn lost his innocence when he decided whether to kill Ramage or not and him discussing his emotions. The novel has many dangers moments in it and this is shown in the poem as well, "rises up silently like dark bread. " This simile reflects the dangers of the natural world in post-apocalyptic times.

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The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.

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1197 Words | 5 Pages

In the chapter The Opposite of Inspiration is… Expiration?, Melinda tells us that “[f]or a solid week, ever since the pep rally, I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit of lightning. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not

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